Prides a Drag
by Kori Ryuen
Summary: Well, I didn't like episode 25, and I know a bunch of you didn't either. So, I wrote this to make me feel better, Hughes lives, another Sin, and major not niceness for Gracia...


Episode 25 1/2 (AU)  
  
Kori Ryuen  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Full Metal Alchemist, if I did, Hughes wouldn't have died at all, and thus I wouldn't be forced to write fanfiction.   
  
Notes: I didn't like the end of Episode 25, so I decided that I'd write something to at least make me feel better, because that was a really stupid way for such an awesome character to go bye bye...  
  
Muzik: garbage-Grow Up!  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
The black clad figure stood over the tomb-stone of Brigadear General Maes Hughes, the cold wind biting at the form. Whips of wind threw the figures cloaks hem back and forth where he stood, the green grass black under his feet in the dark.  
  
"Why couldn't it be a peacefull night? It's always so much nicer when there isn't a biting wind...oh well..." It was a boys voice, lightning flashed, revealing white skin, short black hair and narrow violet eyes. He was unnaturally pail, even in this low lighting, and a scarred array was breifly shown in the middle of his lower back as the wind whipped the long black coat to the side and moved the shirt underneath.  
  
Carefully, the boy pulled out a glass vial of glowing pink liquid. "I hope you appreciate this...it took me forever to make it and now I have to use it on you..." He said absently. Clenching a fist, he growled and suddenly the fresh dirt on the grave exploded outwards.   
  
The boy sighed, shaking the dirt from himself and kneeling next to the now open grave site. Typacle Military box...one thing the higher ups and the common soldier shared, he guessed. With that, he jumped onto the lid and unhooked the latch, opening the coffin. Already the stink of death had filled the small air space inside, and the boy clutched his nose.  
  
"I hope to the gods your bowels emptied /before/ they put you in there, Old man, because that is seriously gross..." He whined.  
  
Taking hold of the funeral attire, very much like the normal military attire that he'd worn every day, the boy lifted the corpse of the Brigadear General and tossed him up onto the grass some six feet higher.  
  
The boy had to struggle a little to get out of the grave, before finally coming to a stand still over the body of the Brigadear General. Squatting down, he lifted the jacket, looking at the bullet hole in Hughes side. "Damnit...I have to fix that...but I dun wanna...I /hate/ healing magic...it's such a pain..." The boy held out the tiny cylander and pressed it against the cold, white skin of Hughes, watching as the glow increased, the bullet hole slowly pushing the bullet out before returning to how it had been.  
  
The boy sighed, picking up the bullet. He sniffed it, "Damn Envy...always with the gun..." He sighed, tilting his head a little and leaning so that he was nose to nose with Hughes, "Remember, Old Man, that going off alone into something you /know/ is dangerous while you have a four year old is just /stupid/, and if you do it again I'll kill you...again."  
  
With that, he opened the lax mouth, popped the lid of the pink liquids container, and poured it down Hughes throat.  
  
From the gaurd house of the cemetary, a white flash was seen, but the gaurdsmen dismissed it as lightning.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Half hour later  
  
Gracia Hughes Residence  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Gracia Hughes quietly tucked her four year old into bed. Alicia had cried herself into exhaustion that day, and the only reason that Gracia wasn't joining the exhaustion was because she had more stamina.  
  
Just enough to know that she would be crying until she was asleep as well.  
  
The funeral had been today, emotionally Gracia just wanted to curl up in her and Maes's bed and just hold onto what was left of him...his scent...his...  
  
She was out of the little girls room and sobbing in seconds.  
  
She would have gone to her room if there hadn't been a pounding at the door. As she wiped her eyes and went down the stairs, she thought, 'Who would be visiting at /this/ hour? on such a horrible day...' she gained her composure before she unlocked the door and opened it.  
  
Her visitor looked to be about fourteen, black haired and wearing a long black coat. What was most starteling were his strange violet eyes, which closed as he smiled.  
  
"Mrs. Hughes?" He asked politely, she nodded, although slightly hesitantly. "I thought this was the right house...er, well, I wanted to tell you how sorry I am about your husband." He bowed, which startled Gracia.  
  
"Why don't you...come in." She said, the wind already wipping around her tree's.  
  
"Aa, I was hoping you'd invite me in...it's not a pleasant night out there, nope." he said, making his way into her living room and onto a couch, while she took a chair to the opposite.  
  
"How did you know my husband?" She asked, she'd never met this person...she had a feeling she'd remember if she had.  
  
"Er...well, I didn't /really/ know him, he showed me a picture of Alicia though...but I'm under the impression he does that a lot." He said, smiling a little and rubbing the back of his head. "But mostly it's my family that I really am here for." His voice lost the childish edge, and he frowned a little at her.  
  
"Your family?" She asked. Something wasn't right...something wasn't as it should be and she could tell.  
  
He sighed, pulling off his jacket, revealing a tight black shirt and pants, "Aa, my family." The last part was said with a sneer, "They were...well, they were the ones that killed your husband." He said finally, ducking his head. Gracia gasped, pulling back.  
  
"Why are you here?!?!" She yelled.   
  
He stood, shushing her with a finger to his lips, "Please, you'll wake up Alicia, I just wanted to appologies...and try to make ammends." He said, sitting back and looking at her forlornly. "My family aren't good people, and your husband was...I liked him a lot. And I'm about to offer you something that I hope will ammend for what my family did."  
  
Gracia didn't sit, but she frowned, this boy obviosly meant what he said, but she was hesitant, "What are you offering?"  
  
He seemed happy that she had replied, "Striaght to business, you'd have to be that way with Hughes as your husband." It was a childish poke of fun, but she didn't aprreciate the familiarity.  
  
The boy noticed and dropped his head a little bit before speaking quietly.  
  
"I haven't seen my family in a long time, and in that time I was working on something...something that was very important." He began to explain, "My family is...very sick, and we're searching for a medacine that will make us better. I found a form of that medacine, enough for one person, and I came back here to get better; but I found that my family was doing very bad things to get something like that medacine."   
  
He frowned deeper, "I met your husband breifly during my initial search." He smiled slightly, "When I heard that he'd died, I made the decision to give him the medacine; no one should have to leave a four year old behind like that."  
  
A strange look crossed her face, what was he getting at?  
  
He sighed, "A form of 'Sorcerrors Stone' was the medacine. According to my research, ingested within four days of death would...reverse the effect, if it was by unnatural causes." He looked up at her, "Maes is asleep outside..." He said, she took a step back, but he held his hand to still her. "Before you go out there, I must warn you."  
  
She stopped, wishing to run to the door and look for her husband, was he telling the truth? No...he couldn't be...could he?  
  
"You mustn't wake him up, not till he awakes himself, if you do, terrible things could happen." He said, standing and walking to her, standing at her shoulder, "Also, he'll experience nightmares and insomnia for at least a month from now...he may foreget somethings, and space out sometimes, you have to remind him to move or what it is." He frowned, leaning closer, "He'll remember everything, it won't be too pleasant at times, but tell him not to go off on dangerous stuff like that on his own, it took my a long time to make that medacine, and I don't know if I can keep a supply around for his if he's stupid again."  
  
She stood there, "Who are you?"  
  
He smiled, "Er, can't tell you my real name, kinda part of the job and what-not, but I'll tell you one thing." He leaned closer, a serious look on his face, "I am a bad person, have been since I could remember, I don't /want/ to be a bad person, so I'm trying to change that. I'm probably doing this more for me than for you."  
  
With that, he went back to the front door, opened it, and exited. Gracia was stunned, but recovered as he came back in, wheel barrowing a large form covered in a tarp.  
  
"Remember, don't, under any circumstances, wake him up before he wakes himself up. Or else he'll die again." The last part was a lie, but a little fear always worked on humans.  
  
She was horrofied and awed as the boy pulled off the sheet, revealing a still pail man. If she didn't notice the shivering and the sounds of his breath, she'd assume the boy had brought her the corpse of her husband.   
  
She wanted to rush foreward, wanted to hug him and kiss him...but she looked at the boy.  
  
"This is /really/ Hughes, right? He'll be the same man I've known for all this time?"  
  
The boy shrugged, "If you let him wake up on his own, most likely, if not, the bond on his soul might not complete itself and you could have a 'half-soul', he'd be pretty useless."  
  
She was startled, "How long will he sleep?"  
  
The boy shrugged again, "Tomorrow morning, maybe early afternoon." He sighed, before lifting the wheelbarrow up with an arm and going up stairs.  
  
She gasped at his strength as he reached to top and poked around for their room, she rushed up the stairs as he found their bedroom, as it had been the last time Maes had been in there.  
  
"If I put him here, he'll wake up and think it's all a bad dream." He said, lifting her husband up and dumping him in the bed, wiping his pail hands on his black pants. He turned to her, "I've given you something that no one else could have, but you must never speak of me, must never say that I was here, you must also not tell anyone anything I have told you, or your gift will go bye bye, your precious Alicia will dissapear, and you'll be left broken and unloved."  
  
She literally trembled as he gave her a cheery fairwell, a breif hug which startled her, and he left the room. Down the hall Alicia's door opened briefly and she heard a loud whisper, "Don't cry now! Papa's work is all done!" And loud footfalls as he dissapeared down the stairs and out the door.  
  
It was only then that she collapsed.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Haha! I am done, I am happy, Hughes is alive (for now in my fic) and a new character has come into play, even if he is imagined.  
  
Um, Review please? 


End file.
